


Never After Ever (The Fore-and-Aft Rigged Remix)

by circ_bamboo



Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen, M/M, UST, boatbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-22
Updated: 2012-04-22
Packaged: 2017-11-04 02:34:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/388737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/circ_bamboo/pseuds/circ_bamboo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony comes to visit Gibbs and gets a lesson in wooden boat-building.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never After Ever (The Fore-and-Aft Rigged Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Ever After Never](https://archiveofourown.org/works/224444) by [Azar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azar/pseuds/Azar). 



Gibbs was in the basement but he didn’t have the radio or TV on, so he didn’t have an excuse for pretending not to hear the knock at his door. He wasn’t expecting anyone, which meant he probably didn’t want to answer the door, but he did anyway, dusting his hands off on a cloth.

Of course it was DiNozzo. “Bet you’re wondering what I’m doing here, aren’t you?”

Not really. DiNozzo had had a bad few days of it, and he’d always been the kind to look to others for reassurance. But he was willing to play the game the way the other man wanted. At least for now. “The thought had crossed my mind," Gibbs said, raising an eyebrow.

DiNozzo stammered for a minute, and then stopped to try again. "I guess I figure if anyone would know how to deal with being accused of murder by the woman you thought you'd spend your life with, it'd be you."

Yep. About what he expected. He pretended to suppress a smile, and put a hand on DiNozzo’s shoulder, where it met his neck. “Come on in. You can help sand the boat.”

DiNozzo looked so relieved that Gibbs even stopped to grab a couple beers out of the fridge. He cracked both open and handed one over, and DiNozzo reflexively took a sip.

He didn’t start speaking until he got to the basement, which was about two minutes longer than Gibbs had expected. “So, uh, boat looks like you’ve gotten pretty far. This is, what, the top part or something?”

“Yeah, the cabin.”

DiNozzo took off his jacket and put it on the chair. He’d apparently already gone home and changed, because he was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt instead of one of his expensive Italian suits. Probably better for sanding. “What are we working on?” he asked.

Gibbs handed him a sanding block and pointed at one side. “Have to sand in between coats of varnish.”

“Oh.”

He watched DiNozzo for a couple minutes to see if he knew how to sand properly, and it turned out he did. Of course, the guy couldn’t do anything without talking, so a minute or so later, he said, “How many coats of varnish?”

“Enough.” He took pity on him, though, and added, “This is the third; there are at least two more.”

“That’s a lot of varnish. I guess it has to be waterproof, though,” DiNozzo said.

Gibbs nodded.

“Are there rooms or anything inside the cabin?”

“The plans are on the workbench if you want to look.” He gestured over to the bench. The plans were there somewhere. He really only looked at them when he had to. It was the fourth time he’d built an Amigo, which meant he mostly knew what he was doing.

“Maybe later.”

They sanded in silence for a few more minutes. Gibbs knew without a doubt that there was something DiNozzo wanted to say--hell, even Palmer would have known that--and it wasn’t about Jeanne, that was for sure.

“Are you going to take this one on the water?” DiNozzo asked.

“Maybe,” Gibbs said. “Why? You sail?”

DiNozzo scoffed. “Of course I can sail,” he said. “My dad’s friends all have yachts.”

“Not the same thing, DiNozzo,” he said.

“Yeah, I guess not,” DiNozzo said. “How big is this going to be, when it’s done?”

“Twenty-five feet deck length,” he said. “Eight feet from bottom to the top of the cabin, and then the mast and sail’s another twenty-seven feet. The cabin’s got just under six feet of headroom.”

“Gonna be kind of tight in there, Boss,” DiNozzo said, and made a strange ‘hngh’ noise.

Gibbs stood and looked over the top of the cabin. DiNozzo was concentrating very hard on his sanding, both hands on the block. “Well, you’re not supposed to spend that much time in there,” he said, ignoring the strange body language, and traced an imaginary line down the center of the ship. “It’s supposed to sleep four, so yeah, close quarters.” He really wished Tony would just spit out whatever it was he wanted to say, because he really had no idea and it was getting annoying.

“Four, huh? Could fit the whole team in there, although I bet you McGee would get seasick.”

“Heh.” As much as he really did like his agents, Gibbs would rather get another root canal than be on a twenty-five-foot sailboat with all three of them.

It continued like that for another hour or so, DiNozzo asking questions about boatbuilding and Gibbs answering them. Finally, after he explained the difference between a Marconi rig and a gaff rig, Tony finally fell silent for a few minutes.

He thought maybe the other man was about to get to his point, but after the silence lengthened from companionable to awkward, Gibbs finally broke one of his own rules and said something. “Okay?”

DiNozzo looked up from the boat, surprised, but recovered quickly and smiled. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

He smiled all the damn time, but somehow this smile was more, Gibbs didn’t know, _real_ or something. He squashed down the feelings that rose in him at the sight of the smile and said, “Another beer?”

“Yeah, sure, thanks, Boss.”

“Then get it yourself.”

Tony’s laughter echoed behind him all the way up the stairs.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to thank my dear spouse for explaining sailboats and wooden boat-craft to me. All mistakes are, of course, mine.


End file.
